Initiate
‘Lok Manch’ movement, DCs toldChandigarh, November 11
The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, today urged divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners to initiate the “Lok Manch” movement in the state so that the process of dialogue between the administration and the people, which had been revived through the “Sarkar Aapke Dwar” programme, could be carried forward.

Don’t trust USA,
Cong cautionsYamunanagar, November 11
India should not depend on USA because it has its own interests. This was stated by Mr Shamsher Singh Surjewala, senior Congress leader and president of the Haryana Krishak Samaj, while talking to mediapersons here today.

PINJORE DIARY
Chaos at level crossingPinjore
It is time for the Himachal Queen to pass and the level crossing between Kalka and Pinjore on the National Highway No. 22 has been closed to allow the train to pass. As the gate is closed, chaos prevails on both sides of the gate. Honking cars and somke-billowing trucks add to the confusion besides spreading a fair amount of pollution. Haphazard parking leads to chaos as everybody is in a hurry to cross the point.

Couple sentenced in fraud caseFaridabad, November 11
A couple found guilty in a fraud case has been sentenced to imprisonment for seven and four years by a local court. They have been ordered to pay a fine of Rs 2.77 crore.
The sentence was delivered by the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, here yesterday.

Notice to 150 building ownersBhiwani, November 11
Notices have been served on about 150 building owners against their carring out constructions without any sanctioned site plan. The municipal authorities have asked such persons to reply within a week.

Haryana Cong to approach rights panelAmbala, November 11
Former Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee president, Shamsher Singh Surjewala, today said the party would approach the Human Rights Commission regarding the “false registration of a case against former minister Nirmal Singh and others”.

8 dengue cases in SonepatSonepat, November 11
Sonepat and its surrounding villages are in the grip of dengue fever.According to official sources, the Health Department authorities had sent nine blood samples of suspected dengue to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, New Delhi, for testing.

School holds functionAmbala, November 11
Springfield Public School, Ambala City, celebrated its sixth annual function. The chief guest was Mr R.S. Chaudhary, Vice-Chancellor, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, who was highly impressed by the performance and motivated the students to keep the school flag flying high.

Chandigarh, November 11
The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, today urged divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners to initiate the “Lok Manch” movement in the state so that the process of dialogue between the administration and the people, which had been revived through the “Sarkar Aapke Dwar” programme, could be carried forward.

Urging them to emulate former Deputy Prime Minister Mr Devi Lal, Mr Chautala said the officers should revive the practice of spending a night in villages or at a place other than their headquarters to have first-hand knowledge of the grievances of the people. The officers should reserve the first half of the day for redressing public grievances and the other half for holding meetings. This would enable the villagers coming to government offices to return to their villages the same day.

Presiding over a meeting of divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners here today, Mr Chautala said the elected representatives of the public should be held in high esteem. The legislators should be invited to all government functions.

Expressing satisfaction over the improved availability of power in the state, Mr Chautala, however, said more measures would be required to ensure the satisfaction of consumers. The chairperson of the power utilities, Mrs Meenaxi Anand Chaudhary, said power connections would be provided on demand from next month. A new scheme had been launched under which officials of the power utilities were going to villages to release new connections on the spot as part of the “tatkal” connection campaign.

Mr Chautala directed the officers to shift dairies out of towns in a time-bound manner. The DC, Faridabad, said 95 dairies should be shifted out of Ballabgarh by the end of this month.

The Commissioner and Secretary, Urban Development, Mr Manik Sonewane, said schemes to shift dairies had been taken up in 12 towns. A scheme to modernise solid waste management and repair of roads had been sanctioned for 16 towns at a cost of Rs 56.56 crore. A similar scheme for 10 other towns would cost Rs 45.23 crore.

Mr Chautala directed the DCs and other officers concerned to take up the digging of ponds on a war footing under the Sampooran Grameen Rozgar Yojana.

The Financial Commissioner, PWD, Mr Prem Prashant, said it had been decided to provide proper drainage along roads in future. He said 760 villages had been identified where cement blocks would be used to make roads, which used to get damaged because of stagnant water in these areas.

The Financial Commissioner and Secretary, Agriculture, Mr Naseem Ahmed, said that while a record kharif production of 36.60 lakh tonnes was expected in the state during this year as against 34.50 lakh tonnes last year, a target to produce 101 lakh tonnes of foodgrains had been fixed for rabi 2001-02.

Mr Chautala said a special loan for the purchase of seeds and fertilisers would be given for the sowing of wheat to those farmers whose cotton crop had been damaged recently.

Faridabad, November 11
After an uproar over fake arms licences case involving some senior officials of the Haryana Government, the Rewari district administration has cancelled 17 licences which prima facie raised doubts about serious irregularities.

Of the 17 licences that were cancelled by the District Magistrate of Rewari, three
licences had camp office addresses, care of the Deputy Commissioner, Rewari.

According to an order copy of these three
licensees, two had the same parentage.

Six other licences cancelled by the administration had again the common address of “Bharat Trunk House”, Railway Road, Rewari, out of which two again had the same parentage.

The District Magistrate, who submitted a report to the Haryana Home Secretary in this regard, had asked all his counterparts in the state and nearby Punjab and Rajasthan not to endorse or renew these licences.

The CBI registered a case in July this year and claimed that some of the licences issued from several places in Haryana during 1994-98 had gone into the hands of anti-national elements, criminals and gangsters.

The CBI has arrested four persons, including Amar Nath Ichhapujani, who was posted as the Subdivisional Magistrate (SDM) in Faridabad between 1994-98, three arms dealers — R. N. Sharma of Delhi, Om Prakash Kapoor of Panipat and Vinay Verma of Jammu — in this connection.

The agency also quizzed Deputy Commissioner of Karnal Devinder Singh on November 7. PTI

Yamunanagar, November 11
India should not depend on USA because it has its own interests. This was stated by Mr Shamsher Singh Surjewala, senior Congress leader and president of the Haryana Krishak Samaj, while talking to mediapersons here today. He said Pakistan was more favoured by the USA and India should be prepared to face any eventuality, even conflict with Pakistan.

Mr Surjewala said state-sponsored terrorism was going on unabated in Kashmir and terrorists were operating from their camps in (PoK). He said the incidence of terrorist attacks had increased after September 11. He said the Prime Minister should not trust USA so far as relationship with Pakistan was concerned.

He criticised the government for its failure. He said the government had to present its case before the WTO at Doha. The government had always been anti-farmer, he said. The government had abolished public distribution system two years back, resulting in a number of starvation deaths in Orissa and Bihar, he said.

Mr Surjewala, who was accompanied by Mr Tara Singh, former Member of Parliament and Mr Nirmal Singh, former minister, lashed out at the Haryana Government, saying that it had failed in controlling law and order situation in the state. He said suicides by farmers had been reported from Haryana also.

Pinjore
It is time for the Himachal Queen to pass and the level crossing between Kalka and Pinjore on the National Highway No. 22 has been closed to allow the train to pass. As the gate is closed, chaos prevails on both sides of the gate. Honking cars and somke-billowing trucks add to the confusion besides spreading a fair amount of pollution. Haphazard parking leads to chaos as everybody is in a hurry to cross the point. With the “apple season” on, the number of heavy vehicles on the highway has increased considerably.

On an average, the closing time varies from five minutes to 20 minutes. About six to 10 trains, including goods trains, pass through this level crossing every day. Commuters from Chandigarh, Panchkula, Nalagarh and Baddi face this problem daily at this railway crossing.

The chaos is ascribed in a large measure to drivers who do not follow the rules of the road. A daily commuter said that the problem is that traffic awareness is lacking among the drivers, particularly the younger lot.

***

The Haryana Government is believed to have approved a proposal of the state Public Works Department (B&R) to privatise the collection of toll on the newly constructed bridge at Surajpur on the Ambala-Kalka National Highway. Tenders will soon be invited from private parties for this purpose. The department has expressed its inability to collect the toll for want of adequate staff. It has also expressed its inability to stop pilferage of revenue.

The bridge, constructed at a cost of Rs 4.50 crore, has replaced the Bailey bridge laid by the Army when a span of the old bridge was washed away by a heavy flood a few years ago.

The department had set March 31, 2002, as the deadline for completing the bridge. After conducting a survey of the traffic, the department has calculated that it will recover the cost of the bridge in less than two years. Toll will be charged at the rate of Rs 15 for a truck, Rs 10 for a car and Rs 5 for a scooter.

The residents of Pinjore have demanded that monthly passes should be issued to them as they have to cross the bridge several times a day for one reason or the other. They are already paying an entry tax at Parwanoo levied by the Himachal Pradesh Government.

Faridabad, November 11
A couple found guilty in a fraud case has been sentenced to imprisonment for seven and four years by a local court. They have been ordered to pay a fine of Rs 2.77 crore.

The sentence was delivered by the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, here yesterday. The court held that the couple, identified as Sunil Behal and Savita, residents of Sector 16-A here, as guilty earlier.

According to the prosecution the accused Sunil Behal, posing as vice-president of a subsidiary of the World Bank had committed a fraud with two different firms about three years ago. While one of the companies is based at Chennai, the other company is Delphin International of Delhi. According to complaint lodged by the Secretary of Gem Group of Companies (Chennai) the accused Sunil Behal defrauded the company of about Rs 2.88 crore on pretext of getting it allotted about 10 acres of land near Gurgaon about three years ago. It says Sunil Behal had introduced himself as vice-president of the World Bank. But the fraud came to light as an inquiry from Chandigarh revealed that there was no proposal of ‘selling land’ to the company as told by Sunil Behal. It is stated that Behal had also promised to get a soft loan of Rs 100 crore to Delphin another company which later filed the complaint against him and his wife. It is alleged an amount of Rs 76 lakh was ‘defrauded’ in this case.

While Sunil Behal has been directed to deposit Rs 2.30 crore as penalty, his wife Savita will have to pay a fine of Rs 47 lakh. In view of inability to pay the fine, Sunil will have to undergo a term of another 18 months in jail, while his wife will have to face another six months of imprisonment.

Earlier, the Chief Minister announced to grant Rs 1 lakh for the Bar Association.

He directed the District Education Officer to appoint an administrator for the functioning of Jagdish Putri Pathshala. He ordered the distribution of 75 per cent grants among the teachers, which is given to the school by the state government.

Bhiwani, November 11
Notices have been served on about 150 building owners against their carring out constructions without any sanctioned site plan. The municipal authorities have asked such persons to reply within a week. According to sources, the municipal authorities had received reports that construction on large scale was being done without valid site plan and if not stopped it would become a wrong precedent for others.

According to sources, only 80 applications have been received for sanction of buildings construction as compared to the previous years’ figure of 211 applications. Whereas construction is on at 450 buildings located at various places here in the city. The
violators of these notices will face legal action.

The sources said a fine of Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 or six months’ jail or both could be imposed on the accused under Sections 208, 209 and 181 of the Municipal Act. The act allowed to charge fine at the rate of Rs 100 per day for the construction days.

Ambala, November 11
Former Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee president, Shamsher Singh Surjewala, today said the party would approach the Human Rights Commission regarding the “false registration of a case against former minister Nirmal Singh and others”.

Talking to mediapersons here today, Mr Surjewala said an application in this regard would be submitted soon.

Mr Surjewala observed that the case against Mr Nirmal Singh was politically motivated. “The state government is now attacking the political opponents,” he said. He stated that jails in Haryana were becoming hotbed of criminal activity.

Sonepat, November 11
Sonepat and its surrounding villages are in the grip of dengue fever.

According to official sources, the Health Department authorities had sent nine blood samples of suspected dengue to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, New Delhi, for testing. The report of eight has been received as positive.

Sources here have revealed that four employees of a private hospital in Sector 14, were down with dengue fever last month and the hospital had remained closed for a week to avoid the spread of the disease.

Cases of dengue have also been reported from Tihar, Sargathal and Dodwa villages in the district.

Lack of life-saving drugs at government hospitals, primary health centres and dispensaries has also been stated as one of the causes of the spread of such diseases in the district.

Ambala, November 11
Springfield Public School, Ambala City, celebrated its sixth annual function. The chief guest was Mr R.S. Chaudhary, Vice-Chancellor, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, who was highly impressed by the performance and motivated the students to keep the school flag flying high.

There was a wide array of sports and entertainment programmes enjoyed by all. The highlight in the field of sports was karate where students broke burning tiles. The gymnastics and skating too was simply mind-boggling.

The function started with the annual report read by the principal, Dr R.K. Walia. He welcomed the audience and highlighted the achievements of the school.

The audience enjoyed the umbrella dance. A Hindi drama and an English play was also staged.